Airport security chief targets travel hassles

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Nancy Baggott thinks of herself as an expert at moving things.

During a 19-year career at FedEx, she developed an expertise at moving packages. Now, as the head of the Transportation Security Administration's operations at John Wayne Airport since July, her job is moving people through security.

“If it starts with a ‘P' – packages or people – I move it,” she said with a laugh.

Baggott, who also oversees the TSA at Long Beach Airport, hopes to move something else, too – the public's often low opinion of airport security screening with its long lines, public disrobing and, sometimes embarrassingly-intrusive personal searches.

A kinder, gentler airport screening? Baggott said it is not an oxymoron. The TSA, she said, can still do its job of keeping the public safe while easing the travails of travel.

She cited an example about 18 months into her assignment at Long Beach, which began in 2008. She watched as a man got turned back from security because of a problem with his boarding pass and spent 10 minutes waiting at the ticket counter for a new boarding pass, before returning to the line at security.

“He started out smiling and in a good mood,” Baggott said. “After that, he wasn't smiling any more.”

She instituted a policy that whenever there is a security problem that requires a traveler to go back to the ticket counter, the TSA agent escorts the traveler to the front of the ticket line. When the problem is resolved, the agent then takes the traveler to the front of the security line to get them back on track as quickly as possible.

“We can all take time to treat people with respect and dignity and solve their problems and help them on their way,” Baggott said.

Bringing people

on board

Baggott uses the same philosophy and a can-do, we're-all-in-this-together approach with the 500 combined staff members she supervises at the two airports.

For instance, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest air travel day of the year, Baggott helped out on the security lines at John Wayne to make sure travelers could quickly get on their way.

Her enthusiasm seems infectious. As she bounded through John Wayne recently, standing out from the crowd with her 5-foot, 10½-inch frame and distinctive spiky blond hair, TSA workers waved or shouted out, “Hi, Nancy.”

Baggott sees her efforts at easing airport screening as one of the ways she can reduce the public hostility and tensions surrounding the process.

TSA managers at other airports are also trying to improve the screening process. At Dallas-Fort Worth International, the airport just launched an experiment with Marriott's Springhill Suites and Security Point Media to provide the ambiance of a hotel at one checkpoint, including soothing music, lights that change color and couches.

It will take more than that, though, to win over many frequent fliers who feel ground down by the intrusive screening process.

“You still have to take off your shoes and your belt and put your hands up like you are being arrested,” said Tom Parsons, who has racked up 6 million frequent flier miles as head of
bestfares.com, an airfare comparison website.
“And even though they aren't the naked scanners, they still have some kind of scanners.”

He said it is all the more insulting because travelers at many overseas airports don't have to take their shoes or belts off. In January, passengers traveling in the European Union will be allowed to bring larger liquid containers on board.

Baggott also has the advantage of overseeing small airports – John Wayne had 8.9 million passengers last year and Long Beach 3.2 million. Waits in the security lines already are fairly short, usually under 10 minutes.

Baggott's plans could be much more difficult to implement at a major airport hub like Los Angeles International, where 64 million travelers went through the gates in 2012.

A third career

Baggott said her approach to her job is drawn not only from lessons learned at FedEx, but during a 26-year career in the military. She joined the Army in 1973 during the Vietnam War, specializing in technical intelligence. She left the Army in 1980 and joined the Army Reserves while working at FedEx. She rose through the Army ranks to become a command sergeant major before retiring in 1999.

Baggott also took an early-retirement offer from FedEx and at age 53 found herself looking for something to do. In 2003 she began her third career when she joined the TSA. She was assigned to the Long Beach Airport as the TSA's federal security director in 2008.

She wasted no time in adapting her customer-friendly approach in Orange County. Using the kinds of metrics she learned at FedEx, Baggott gets data from the airlines so she knows what kind of traffic is expected during the day at John Wayne's three terminals and assigns staff to the security screening as needed. This allows them to keep security waits to a minimum.

She also shifts staff for the TSA's relatively new Pre-Check program, which allows select travelers to go through expedited security screening without removing their shoes and belts or opening their laptop cases.

That means some Pre-Check lines are staffed only in the peak morning hours but not later in the day.

On one recent day, Baggott said, about 40 percent of John Wayne's 17,000 travelers were able to use the faster Pre-Check.

Baggott said more changes are coming. The TSA is expanding Pre-Check beyond the current airline frequent fliers and Custom and Border Protection's trusted travelers. Members of the U.S. military now will be eligible if they have their ID cards, and the public will be allowed to apply for the program online.

The TSA also is rolling out what it calls a managed-inclusion program that does instant threat assessments on travelers as they check in.

Passengers deemed not to be a threat will be randomly selected for the Pre-Check expedited screening line.

Baggott says the changes are based on new technology and the lessons the TSA has learned in handling screening over the last 10 years. There is no reason, she said, that they can't improve on the process.

“I see myself in the solutions business, not just for security but for customer service,” Baggott said.

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